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American Regionalist
Herman Maril's paintings emphasize clarity, absolute simplicity,
and elimination of unnecessary detail. He employs broad, flat,
color masses to structure recognizable forms, a style related to
Cubism. Maril was discovered by Washington's art circles of the
1930s and by Duncan Phillips (The Phillips Collection). He was
hired by the Public Works of Art Project (better known as the WPA),
the first of the New Deal programs initiated by the federal
government to aid artists during the Depression. Slag in Snow
(1949) is from his series on this subject, one of which was
exhibited in Painting in the United States, 1945 at The
Carnegie Institute. It reflects Maril's simple, abstracted style
with broad, flat, interlocking planes.
Born in Baltimore, Maril
received his early training at the Maryland Institute of Fine
Arts. He was employed during the depression years on federal art
projects and throughout his career as a teacher at the University
of Maryland. His work is in the collections of the Metropolitan
and Whitney Museums, New York; the National Museum of American
Art, The Phillips Collection, and the Corcoran Gallery,
Washington, D.C.; the Baltimore Museum of Art; the Walters Art
Gallery; and many other museums in the United States and Europe.
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